The Fiddler (Isaac Bowin) first appeared in All-Flash #32 (December 1947/January 1948).He developed the ability to use his violin to play sounds that could either hypnotize others, shatter objects, or create barriers which would use to perform crimes.[1] The Fiddler's history was changed somewhat during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Pre-Crisis explored him as a man that started out as a thief who was arrested in India and sent to jail. While in prison, he met a fakir, charming a snake in his cell, who taught him the "mystic art" of Indian music. For the next five years, he learned the fakir's secret and made a crude violin made of material he can scrounge in the prison. After the fakir declared his student had surpassed him, he used the instrument to hypnotize the guards to open their cells and he and the fakir escaped. He then murdered the fakir and the merchant who had him arrested in the first place. Post Crisis would reveal him as the son of British aristocrats, Isaac Bowin had a talent with music, and an impulse to travel. Running out of money, he resorted to theft and robbery to make ends meet until he was arrested in India and sent to jail. He then met a fakir, much as in the pre-Crisis version.

Clifford DeVoe' was a failed lawyer who bitterly ended his career in 1933. Realizing that many of the criminals he had encountered had the skills but not the brains to rule Gotham City's underworld, he started a new career as the brain behind small-time villains. As the Thinker, he was defeated by the original Flash, who soon became his most recurrent foe. He always sought out new scientific devices to use and his most important was the "Thinking Cap", a metal hat that could project mental force. The Thinker would use this device repeatedly over the years.

He was also a founding member of the Injustice Society of the World, in which position he captured the Flash.

DeVoe accepted a mission with the Suicide Squad in exchange for a full pardon.[2] Although he was seemingly killed by the Weasel during this mission, he turned up alive soon after, only to be dying from cancer due to the cap.[3] His former foe, the original Flash, attempted to save him with the Thinking Cap, but DeVoe refused, preferring to rest in peace.[3]

"Rose and Thorn" redirects here. For the current DC Comics hero who calls herself Thorn, see Thorn (comics).

Rose and Thorn are the two personalities of a Golden Age character in DC Comics. Thorn (Rose Canton) is a woman with a split personality whose villainous personality has the ability to control plants. Initially, she and her hired thugs opposed The Flash. After being (apparently) cured of her Thorn persona, Rose married Alan Scott and had two children, Jennie-Lynn Hayden and Todd James Rice with him. After a resurgence of her madness, she committed suicide.

The Silver Age Flash enemies all lived on Earth-One and started out as enemies of the second Flash, Barry Allen, as well as the third Flash, Wally West, and the fourth, Bart Allen, after the death of Barry Allen. The Silver Age is when some enemies started to use the name Rogues. Originally, the Rogues were just a few of the Flash's enemies teaming together, but since then they have formed a lasting team, and usually a Rogue will not commit a crime by himself. The original eight Rogues were Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, the Trickster, Pied Piper, the Top, and Captain Boomerang. The current incarnation of the Rogues includes Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, the second Mirror Master, and the new Trickster.

Within the context of the stories, Albert Desmond is a chemist who suffers from a multiple personality disorder with one law-abiding personality and another criminally inclined one. Under his darker personality he applies his knowledge of chemistry to create the identity of Mister Element, creating elemental weapons such as bulletproof silicon to shield his cars, and discovered a new element, Elemento, a magnetic light, with which he sent the Flash into space. After being sent to jail as a result of his first encounter with the Flash, he learns of the Philosopher's Stone from his cellmate. He escapes, finds the Stone, and uses its power to transmute one element to another to restart his criminal career as Doctor Alchemy.[5]

Over time he switches between the two identities, showing a preference for "Doctor Alchemy". Eventually his good personality resurfaces and he quits crime and hides the Stone. Shortly after a new Doctor Alchemy appears and is revealed to be his identical twin brother Alvin Desmond with whom he shares a psychic link.[volume & issue needed] This plot point was retconed in later stories to "Alvin" being a construct of the Stone created by Albert's criminal personality.[volume & issue needed] When Albert confronts and defeats "Alvin" he resumes the role of Doctor Alchemy.

While he has alternated between incarceration and freedom, equipment for both of his costumed identities have be used by others. Curtis Engstrom used the Philosopher's Stone as The Alchemist and Alexander Petrov resurrected Mister Element.

As Mister Element, Albert Desmond uses a weapon that can affect the structure of elements. As Doctor Alchemy he possesses the Philosopher's Stone which once belonged to Merlin. The Stone allows him to transmute any element into any other element. He can control the Stone from a distance with telekinesis.[5]

In addition to the Silver Age Rogues, there have been many other Flash villains created in the past few years. The special issue Flash: Iron Heights was the first appearance of many of them. Some of the "new breed", as the old rogues call them, made a team called the New Rogues, led by Blacksmith. They tried to take away the allies of the Flash so he would fight them alone, but the Flash beat them anyway. These villains are not part of the current rogues, which are still the Silver Age villains. Also, new versions of Mirror Master, the Trickster, and Captain Boomerang were introduced and became part of the rogues.

Within the context of the stories, Alexander Petrov is a criminologist working for the Keystone City Police Department. In order to advance his career he uses one of weapons Albert Desmond used as Mister Element to freeze the lab supervisor solid. Petrov is promoted to replace the dead supervisor and discovers he likes the thrill of killing. He continues to eliminate members of the department he sees as "threats" to his position using the weapon and ice based effects. He uses the effects and his position as head of the crime lab to shift suspicion to Captain Cold. His plan comes undone when profiler Ashley Zolomon enters his office as he is putting on his mask. The Flash is able to stop him from killing her but Captain Cold interrupts them before the Flash can take him into custody. Cold kills Petrov for breaking the Rogues' code of "ethics" - framing another Rogue for your own crimes.[6]

Within the context of the stories, Blacksmith operates an underground black market known as the Network in Central City and Keystone City. Early in her career she is briefly married to Goldface. When they divorce, she steals some of the elixir that gives him his powers. She has it modified before drinking it and gains the ability reshape metal and merge it with flesh.[volume & issue needed]

Using the Network as a power base, she assembles a new team of Rogues to take control of the two cities. As her plan unfolds, she is able to isolate the two cities and almost defeats the Flash. Her victory unravels due to dissension among her Rogues and Goldface leading the populace of the cities against her. Her defeat results in the Network being closed down and her incarceration in Iron Heights.[Flash 1]

Within the context of the stories, Brother Grimm is the son of Brother Nightingale, the king in the alternate dimension of Eastwind. When Nightingale plans an invasion of Earth, Grimm sends a warning to the Flash. When the Flash along with Kid Flash and Jay Garrick stop the invasion, Nightingale is deposed and Grimm offered the crown. He takes the advice of Kid Flash to "follow his own path" and lets his brother Angar take the crown. Grimm, regretting taking the advice, is forced to take the crown and kill Angar when it becomes apparent he is no better than their father. The regret becomes rage when he learns that Wally, contrary to his own advice, has taken up the mantel of the Flash.[Flash 2]

To punish the Flash, Grimm enlists Mirror Master and Captain Cold to trap him in a mirror world while he removed Keystone City to Eastwind and the citizens placed under his control. He makes the mistake of double-crossing the Rogues who work with the Flash to escape the mirror world, rescue the citizens of Keystone, and defeat Grimm.[Flash 3]

He later returned with a new identity of a classmate of Linda's in medical school, attempting to 'steal' her from the Flash and claim the Flash's 'kingdom' once again. To this end, he trapped Linda at the top of a giant beanstalk that would spread to consume Central City, but Wally was able to reach the top with the aid of Hawkman- who noted that he had once fought one of Grimm's ancestors who used a similar trick in one of his past lives-, Hawkman destroying the beanstalk while Wally defeated Grimm.

Brother Grimm is a skilled sorcerer and warrior, able to create glamours that change his appearance and transport others between dimensions. He can also sense the use of extra dimensional forces such as the Speed Force.

Within the context of the stories, sometime in the early 20th century, David Hersch murders his wife during a thunderstorm. Regretting this, he attempts to take his own life but is struck by lightning and has a vision: He has been chosen to live forever, and he will bring his wife back as well.[10][volume & issue needed]

Calling himself Cicada and keeping himself alive by transferring the life force of others to himself, Hersch accumulates followers and plans for the day when he will be able to resurrect his wife. To achieve his vision he faces a moral dilemma, he needs to sacrifice others to fuel the resurrection. While his followers would volunteer, he does not know if it would be enough. He finds an answer in the people who have been saved by the Flash. He sees the Flash as "a brother blessed by the lightning" and those who would have died without the Flash's interference as lives he can take with a clear conscience.

Acting on this, he has his followers go into Keystone City and kill those the Flash has saved with daggers that collect life energy. He also has Magenta bring the Flash to him to witness the resurrection. He briefly succeeds only to have his wife reveal his crime. The Flash is able to break free and in the ensuing fight Cicada drains the life of his followers and slashes Detective Morillo with his dagger before being captured.[10][volume & issue needed]

Cicada has the ability to steal the life-force of other living beings and use it to prolong his own life and regenerate physical damage. He carries a hilted blade capable of absorbing the life force of its victims in order to resurrect the dead.

Within the context of the stories, Malcolm Thawne is the twin brother of Barry Allen and an ancestor of Allen's archenemy Professor Eobard "Professor Zoom" Thawne. At the time of their birth, the doctor delivering them had already accidentally killed the child of Charlene Thawne during delivery. To cover his mistake, the doctor gave one of the twins to the Thawnes as their own and told the Allens that their second son had been stillborn.[12][Flash 4]

Raised by the Thawnes as a con artist, Malcolm learns of his brother by accident as an adult. He learns the full story by confronting his "parents" and the doctor who delivered him, killing the latter in a rage. His grandmother, seeing true potential in his passion, teaches him the family secret of controlling the "blue flame". Eventually he crafts a blue gem to contain the flame. The creation is fueled by his rage and jealousy of his twin "stealing his life" and can siphon off the Flash's superspeed.[12][Flash 4]

His first confrontation with the Flash and Kid Flash results in the flame absorbing him.[Flash 5] Emerging years later, he shifts his focus onto his brother's "legacy" since Barry Allen had died to stop the Anti-Monitor while he was in the flame. His plan spans from the present to near the end of the 30th century, targeting the Flashes of various eras in between. His plan is undone by Wally West who skirts the edge of the speed force while carrying the shards of the blue gem. The power pouring into the gem overloads and destroys it.[Flash 6]

The character, created by Mark Waid and Greg LaRocque, first appeared in Flash vol 2, #71 (December 1992).[13] The name "Alchemist" had previously been used for a Golden Age character in a Justice Society story.

Within the context of the stories, Curt Engstrom is a scientist working at S.T.A.R. Labs as a part of a team studying Doctor Alchemy'sPhilosopher's Stone. He steals the Stone but is captured and jailed before he can figure out how to use it. Escaping, he creates the identity of the Alchemist and uses the stone in an attempt to get revenge on the lawyer who betrayed him. He is instead recaptured by the Flash.[Flash 7][Flash 8]

Within the context of the stories, Jeremy Tell is a con artist and compulsive gambler. After losing all his money in a game he murders the gambler who walked away from the table with the most money. A cursed deck of cards owned by the man he murdered attacks him and bonds to his skin. He finds that he can mentally detach and direct the cards for various effects. Taking the name Double Down, he joins Keystone City's supervillain community.[volume & issue needed]

Powers and abilities

The "cards" of the cursed deck have replaced Double Down's skin. He is able to mentally control them, detaching them from his body and directing their movement. He can use a card's razor edges to cut through objects, or to encase an opponent with his cards.

Within the context of the stories, the Folded Man is Edwin Gauss, a physics student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology looking to definitively resolve Albert Einstein's Unified field theory. He invents of a device that allows interdimensional travel using proprietary software stolen from Norman Bridges. He incorporates this into a suit that allows its wearer to move across at least four dimensions.

When Bridges tries to take the technology, Gauss uses the suit to create the identity of the Folded Man to strike back at Bridges. The Flash is caught in the middle and winds up taking Gauss into custody.[15]

The Folded Man wears a suit that allows him to manipulate his personal dimensions. He can flatten to a two-dimensional form which allows him to slice through objects more cleanly than the sharpest razor. By shifting into four dimensions, he can leave our plane and pop back anywhere he likes.

Within the context of the stories, Tony Woodward causes a riot at the steel plant where he works when he assaults a female co-worker. He is thrown into a vat of molten steel which includes scraps from S.T.A.R. Labs experiments. These scraps convert his body into living iron and imbue him with superhuman strength and a high resistance to harm, though he does rust. Taking the name Girder, he is eventually sent to Iron Heights Penitentiary for a conviction on robbery charges.[16] He is among the criminals that Blacksmith recruits as the new Rogues.

Woodward made his television debut in The Flash episode, "The Flash is Born", portrayed by Greg Finley.[17] He was a childhood bully of Barry Allen who, after the explosion of the particle accelerator which created the Flash, fell into a vat of melted scrap metal. This gifted him with the power to transform his body into an incredibly durable metal. Woodward first encounters the Flash after a carjacking, where he defeats the superhero easily. Later, he visits Iris West, infuriating Barry and causing him to confront Woodward. Woodward beats the Flash and leaves him for dead before kidnapping Iris and forcing her to write about him on her blog. Barry faces off with him for a third time, this time hitting him at a speed of over 800 mph and temporarily disabling his powers. At the end of the episode, he is locked in the makeshift prison beneath S.T.A.R. Labs. Woodward is not referred to as Girder in the episode; rather, Cisco builds a robotic training dummy by that name for Barry to practice fighting against, in preparation for his showdown with Woodward.
In the following episode, "Power Outage", Woodward is recruited by Dr. Harrison Wells to kill Blackout, who has broken into S.T.A.R. Labs and is hunting the doctor, who he blames for the accident which gave him his powers. In reality, Wells is using Woodward as a distraction for Blackout while he and his team work to restore the de-powered Flash's powers. Girder finds Blackout and briefly fights him before being shocked into submission. In the moments before his death, he is found by Barry and Caitlin Snow, and Girder uses his dying breath to tell them to run.

Girder shares the origin and powers with Pig-Iron of the Zoo Crew, a comic series Geoff Johns has previously cited as inspiration for another character of his creation, Stargirl.

An early concept design for Magenta by George Pérez appeared in DC Sampler #2, with the character's initial name being Polara and her color scheme consisting of red and blue rather than magenta and white. Frankie Kane was a one time girlfriend of Wally West, who gained magnetic powers which killed her family. Not knowing her purpose in life, she became a villain and first joined the Cicada cult and the New Rogues before reforming. Magenta can generate and control magnetic fields, which she can use to move, lift, and manipulate ferrous metals. She can focus her powers into blasts of concussive magnetic force that can shatter steel, or fire electromagnetic pulses to disrupt electronic systems. She can concentrate her magnetic powers into a protective shield that repels metals and most physical assaults. By surrounding herself with an aura of magnetism that has an equal polarity to the Earth's own geomagnetic field, she can cause the Earth to repel her upward, and thereby fly by magnetic levitation.

Manfred Mota is a nuclear engineer, and the father of Valerie Perez. He was introduced in the Flash 50th Anniversary Special as having faced multiple incarnations of the Flash, each time using a new moniker, but similar powers.[18]

On his first appearance as the Atom Smasher, he uses his knowledge as a nuclear engineer, to create a suit giving him an atomic-power punch. Mota is defeated by Jay Garrick. In prison, Mota plots revenge and when the new Flash, Barry Allen, appears, Mota believes him to be Jay. Released from prison, Mota holds Central City hostage as Professor Fallout, secretly hiding a neutron bomb in a sculpture of an atom. He is quickly defeated by Barry and returned to prison.[19]

During his second stint in prison, Mota begins to obsess over revenge, the Flash and safe nuclear power. Creating the identity of Fusionn, Mota steals equipment from a nuclear power plant and crafts a suit that allows him to shoot blasts of energy. Mota manages to unmask the third Flash, Wally West, in the fight, only to realize that he is not fighting Jay, and that West's identity is publicly known. Enraged, Mota attempts to melt the entire city, but West throws a piece of iron—waste from the nuclear fusion reaction of Mota's suit—through one of Mota's cooling tanks, melting the suit into radioactive rock. One Year Later after Infinite Crisis, Mota's daughter, Valerie, has begun a romance with the fourth Flash, Bart Allen. Mota somehow has been transformed into an energy being, and has been stalking his daughter. He kidnaps her with the help of Allen's clone Thaddeus Thawne (Inertia). Mota plans to use his daughter's DNA to reconstruct his own body, but is doublecrossed by his partner. Manfred later appears to Valerie again, claiming that he still loves her, but is captured by Bart Allen.[20]

The future Flash, John Fox, faces Mota when he returns as a monster made of living Plutonium in 2645. Fox manages to send Mota into the future where he decays into lead.

Dr. Michael Amar, a once respected surgeon, succumbed to madness and started a killing spree to stop the voices inside his head. This spree went through Central and Keystone City and caught the eye of police officers Fred Chyre and Joe Jackam. They later tracked Amar down with the help from Central City forensic scientist, Barry Allen. Part of Amar's psychosis is the inability to stop himself from blurting out his crimes. Because of these outbursts, he is quickly convicted and sentenced to death.

It is soon discovered that Amar's blood is so abnormal that lethal injection can not kill him. While incarcerated in Iron Heights prison, Amar cuts out his own tongue and sews his mouth shut so he will no longer be able to incriminate himself. Wearing a thin mask of his own design, Amar becomes known as Murmur.

While in prison, Murmur creates a virus that kills the guards and prisoners and escapes during the riots it causes. He then joins Blacksmith, who helps him with creating the virus, and her rogues. Afterwards, Murmur strikes out on his own.

Murmur is one of the villains being controlled by the Top during the Rogue War story arc.

One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Murmur has made only one full appearance in the DC Universe. In writer Gail Simone's Secret Six, he is one of the villains sent to retrieve the Get-Out-of-Hell-Free card from the team. The only other mention of the villain post-One Year Later is a framed front page newspaper of the Central City Citizen detailing Murmur's arrest and incarceration by police. It is seen on a wall of the Allen household in The Flash: Rebirth #1.

Powers and abilities

Murmur has no super human powers of a combative nature. All he has is a mutated physiology making him immune to bloodbourne disease or toxins.

Peek-a-Boo was created by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, the character first appeared in Flash v2, #180, (January 2002).

Peek-a-Boo is Lashawn Baez, a Central City Medical School graduate student who set aside her studies to take care of her father Tomas Baez when he fell ill. Tomas was in desperate need of a kidney transplant. Lashawn tried to donate hers, but the procedure activated her latent metagene, granting her teleportation powers, but making her unable to donate her kidney, because she teleported whenever she was touched. Lashawn decided that she would use her powers to find a matching donor organ for her father.[22][23]

As Peek-a-Boo, she sneaks into Central City Hospital to steal a kidney, but accidentally destroys a lab because her powers are unstable and dangerous. A random teleport is unintentionally set off by a doctor grabbing her arm, causing an implosion in which she disappeared, and which nearly kills the surprised surgeon. Peek-a-Boo is forced to fight the Flash and his ally Cyborg, who are able to defeat her after much difficulty, using a combination of a wall of white noise generated by Cyborg, and disorientation from hundreds of teleportings a second, deliberately triggered by the Flash. The Flash later returns the kidney to the hospital, and Lashawn is convicted and sent to Iron Heights. The Flash tried repeatedly to intercede on her behalf, but Warden Gregory Wolfe insisted on following the strict letter of the law, going so far as to drug Lashawn whenever anyone outside came to interview her.[22][23]

As a result of Gorilla Grodd's attack on the Iron Heights facility, Peek-a-Boo is able to escape. She goes directly to Central City Hospital in order to check on her father. Tomas Baez' doctors have been able to find a new kidney in time, but his ailing body rejected it, and Lashawn is just in time to sit with him as he dies. The Flash appears at the hospital, and confronts Peek-a-Boo. Lashawn, sick with grief and embittered by her incarceration, reveals that she had originally intended to become a hero like the Flash whom she had idolized. Since being branded as a Rogue by Flash, she has rejected him and all he stand for. Nevertheless, Lashawn later saves the life of the Flash's wife, Linda Park, when Park is injured in the fight between Peek-a-Boo and the Flash. Lashawn then turns herself in to the police believing she has nothing left to live for, and remains in custody.[22][23]

She's mentioned in Carl Draper's fictional Checkmateblog as still imprisoned, but willing to cooperate with Checkmate by testing the security system with her teleportation abilities and suggested by Draper himself as new possible recruit.[24]

Darkness and limited field of vision inhibits her Teleportation ability. She cannot perform Teleportation in absence of light, as she can only Teleport to the places she can see near or far.

Other versions

An adolescent version of Peek-a-Boo appeared in Tiny Titans. Here, she flirted with Kid Flash and used her abilities to playfully pick on him.[26]

Shawna Baez appeared in The CW's The Flash (TV Series) 2014 Episode 12 of Season 1. She has the Teleportation ability by means of which she breaks into Iron Heights prison to free her boyfriend, Clay Parker. Dr. Caitlin Snow nicknamed her 'Peek-a-Boo'. Later, The Flash is able to capture her after removing all the lights in a tunnel, effectively making her unable to Teleport without being able to see where she is going.

A Cold War pilot for a third-world nation, the man who would become known as Savitar was to test a supersonicfighter jet. As he reached top speed, his plane was struck by what appeared to be lightning, and he went down in hostile territory. Discovering he could defeat the enemy by moving at super-speed, he became obsessed with speed, naming himself after Savitr the Hindu "god of motion", and dedicating his life to unlocking its secrets. As Savitar studied, he discovered new powers that no other living speedster has mastered. He can protect himself in a null-inertia force field, give speed and kinetic energy to objects or people, even those in a rest state, he could also heal his own injuries almost instantly.

Savitar’s obsession gained followers, and he became the leader of a cult. In search of more knowledge, he sought out the only super-speed hero operating at the time: Johnny Quick. This encounter became a battle, the tide of which was turned with the arrival of Max Mercury, who led Savitar toward the Speed Force, but caused him to bounce off.

Savitar reappeared decades later to find that his cult had grown in his absence, awaiting his return. He recruited former Blue Trinity member Lady Flash (Christina Alexandrova), and discovered a way to use her speed to divert all energy from the Speed Force to his own army of ninjas. He then sought to eliminate the competition: Flash (Wally West), Impulse, Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick), Johnny Quick, Jesse Quick, XS, and especially Max Mercury.

Fortunately, Wally’s direct line to the Speed Force prevented Savitar from stealing his speed, and a coalition of just about every speedster (except for Red Trinity), foiled his plans. Hell-bent on at least destroying Flash’s world in retribution, he led the Flash on a worldwide race of destruction, until Flash chose to give Savitar what he wanted: union with the Speed Force. His earlier encounter had shown him that the others who had arrived before would deal with Savitar as they saw fit.

In The Flash Rebirth mini-series, Savitar is able to escape from the Speed Force. He is run down by the recently returned to life Barry Allen; however, when Barry touches him, Savitar disintegrates, leaving only a pile of bones.[27] It is revealed that Professor Zoom altered the Speed Force and Barry to make the Flash shift in reverse, and cursed to kill every Speed Force user with a single touch, though it seemed to be undone by the defeat of Professor Zoom during the conflict between the two speedsters.[28] Thus far, Savitar, Lady Flash (Lady Savitar at the time) and Johnny Quick have been killed by this effect.[29][30]

Savitar can move at super speed, and is able to lend or steal speed from moving objects. He has accelerated healing due to increased metabolism and can generate a null inertia force field.

The younger brother of a local drug lord Jack Monteleone, Joey Monteleone was arrested for armed robbery. While serving time, he discovered he had the metahuman ability to inhabit inanimate objects. With this ability, he got his kicks by transferring his mind from object (for example, a fire hydrant which he used to spray the Flash in vol. 73) to object until he couldn't move his mind from, of course, a vat of asphalt. Now he remains in that hot tar pit while his real body remains unconscious and is being abused by his padded-cellmate in Iron Heights.

In his new form, Tarpit first caused havok at a Keystone Cityice hockey game, trying to steal the Stanley Cup for himself. He was stopped by Flash and Captain Cold, although Cold himself stole the trophy. He has appeared sporadically with the other rogues ever since.

In Blackest Night crossover, Tar Pit is shown with Owen Mercer, visiting his father's grave, accompanying Owen in his search for the Black Lantern version of his father on the grounds that he will be of no interest to the Black Lantern Corps as his tar-based form has no heart for them to take.[31]

Powers and abilities

Tar Pit’s body is made of molten asphalt and burns on touch. He is able to trap people in the substance of his body and can hurl flaming chunks of tar at his enemies. Due to his body being made of tar, Tar Pit is practically invulnerable.

Before becoming Tar Pit, Joey was able to project his consciousness into inanimate objects and animate them.

Other versions

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Tar Pit was imprisoned in Iron Heights. Tar Pit is confronted by Mirror Master, who assembles the Rogues.[32] Tar Pit then escaped from Iron Heights and pursued revenge against Citizen Cold for stealing his family's money.[33] Citizen Cold killed Tar Pit revealing that his brother, Jack Monteleone was dealing drugs of their family fortune.[34]

The original Turtle was a 1940s villain who used tricks of slowness in battle with the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick), but whose main weapon was slow, deliberate planning. After a few clashes with the Flash, the Turtle faded from the public scene. Years later, the Turtle Man carried on his legacy. After the debut of the third Flash (Wally West), the original Turtle returned, with the younger Turtle Man as his henchman, to take over Keystone City from underground. A final clash with Wally and his allies resulted in the Turtle destroying his own headquarters, and apparently himself with it.

The Turtle Man (sometimes calling himself simply the Turtle) was the first gimmicked rogue fought by the second Flash (Barry Allen) and appeared in Central City shortly after Barry's debut as Flash. Originally using his natural slowness as a weapon, such as returning to rob a bank vault later to place people off guard, this Turtle Man was also a scientific genius (and independently wealthy) who created fantastic devices based on slowness. After robbing the bank he painted his shadow on the wall, fooling the Flash into crashing into it. In his first appearance he was captured by the Flash while trying to escape via boat and arrested. This is apparently true both Pre and Post-Crisis. Turtle Man only had a handful of battles with the second Flash. The original Turtle from the 1940s returned and met his "successor". Impressed with the latter's scientific talent, the first Turtle allied himself with him in an attempt to take over Keystone City. A lab accident seriously crippled the Turtle Man during this time. After the third Flash (Wally West) and his allies had found the Turtle's underground headquarters, the original Turtle seemingly killed himself while the younger Turtle Man was taken into custody. Later, the Turtle Man reappeared again, seemingly cured from his severe injuries, and having developed the ability to 'steal' speed, slowing others around him to a crawl no matter how fast they were moving.

Rainbow Raider (Roy G. Bivolo) first appeared in The Flash Vol. 1 #286 (June 1980), and was created by Cary Bates and Don Heck. He was a minor, though recurring, enemy of the Flash and other heroes.

As a child, Roy G. Bivolo always dreamed of a career as an artist, a lofty goal considering he was completely colorblind. He would often paint what he thought were beautiful pieces of art, only to be told that it was made up of clashing colors. His father, an optometrist and genius in optical technology, swore he would find a cure for his son's disorder. Due to failing health, he was unable to complete his product, but instead created a sophisticated pair of goggles that would allow Roy to create beams of solid rainbow-colored light. On his death-bed, his father presents him with this gift, and it was not long before Roy found a sinister use for it.

Turning to crime because the world did not appreciate his art, Roy, now the Rainbow Raider, went on a crime spree focused mostly on art galleries, saying that if he could not appreciate the great works of art in them (due to his disability), no one else would. During this time he often clashes with the Flash, and sparks a rivalry that would last several years. Some years later he would fight Booster Gold as well. He is a central plot point in the first volume of Underworld Unleashed, because the demonic antagonist considered him pathetic.

Roy is slain by the villainess Blacksmith when she impaled him with his latest work of art.[37] He is one of the many deceased characters temporarily reanimated as a zombie within the Black Lantern Corps.[38]

Also, since his death, a team of color-themed supervillains have dubbed themselves the Rainbow Raiders in his honor.

After the death of the first Captain Boomerang, a funeral was held that every villain ever to face the Flash attended. Among the large crowd was an eclectic group of metahumans calling themselves the "Rainbow Raiders," in honor of the late Flash villain. Their sentiments, expressed during the service, seemed to denote that the group was relatively new to the scene, had little exposure, standing, or experience working together.

The fate of the Rainbow Raiders was intended for the pages of Blackest Night, and was soon after released as a "deleted page" segment in Untold Tales of the Blackest Night. Believing that, with the dead attacking, it was best to be on the 'winning side', the Raiders committed mass suicide in order to join the Black Lantern Corps. However they remained dead, because they lacked any emotional ties sufficient enough to draw the attention of the black rings - which focused on resurrecting people who would inspire certain emotions in Earth's heroes and villains (such as Lex Luthor's various murder victims, or fallen heroes and villains like Maxwell Lord and Elongated Man).

Power and abilities

Rainbow Raider's powers are derived entirely from the special goggles he wears, which allow him to project solid beams of rainbow-colored light he can either use offensively or as a slide for travel. In addition, he can coat people in certain colors of light to induce emotions.

Like the original Rainbow Raider, the team's members are named after the colors of the visible spectrum, each one having powers and appearance symbolically linked to their color.

Red: a super strong brawler.

Orange: a fire-wielder.

Yellow: an electricity-wielding speedster.

Green: a plant manipulator.

Blue: a water-based shapeshifter.

Indigo: a shadow-wielder.

Violet: a wind manipulator.

The group also seemed to work with a floating head named "Computron," an updated version of the Flash villain Colonel Computron. Computron was killed in Santa Prisca by the Brazilian superhero Fire during a Checkmate mission.

The New 52

Rainbow Raider, now renamed as Chroma, makes a brief first appearance in Flash Vol.4 #23.1, only to be killed by Gorilla Grodd.

Dr. Quin (a villain from the first Dial H for Hero series) appears in "House of Mystery" #167 as a different Rainbow Raider. This version temporarily gave himself powers using a rare crystal that changed his body into different colors (slowly following the sequence of the rainbow). Depending on which color he was at the time, he would gain a different superpower: Red gave him a super-hot beam, Orange gave him an obscuring cloud, Yellow gave him the ability to drain energy and super powers, Green enables him to slow the bodies of others to the point of paralysis for an hour, and Violet enables to shrink people and objects for an hour. His Blue and Indigo powers are never shown. He also had a secret final color power called Ultra-Violet which made him invisible.

Paul Anthony portrays Roy Bivolo in The Flash episode "Flash Vs. Arrow", which is a crossover over with Arrow.[42] Although it is suggested that he could be called Rainbow Raider, the codename he is given is Prism. Rather than using goggles, he instead has a metahuman power that allows him to incite rage in people by looking directly into their eyes. His eyes glow red when he uses this power. Bivolo sends the Flash into a rage, but the Arrow is able to keep the Flash occupied long enough for Dr. Wells and Joe to arrive and reverse the effect. Bivolo is later captured and imprisoned, but escapes during the prison break in "Rogue Air", when Captain Cold sabotages the attempt to move the prisoners from the particle accelerator with the goal of gaining their aid at some future date.

After the return of Barry Allen, a charred corpse is discovered that appears to be the Black Flash. While inspecting the remains, Barry temporarily becomes the replacement Black Flash due to Professor Zoom's tampering with the Speed Force.[Flash 11]

The Eel

Comic Cavalcade #3 (Summer 1943)

“Eel” Madden was a criminal who had a greasegun which made it almost impossible for anyone to catch him.

The Changeling

Flash Comics #84

Nothing is known of the life of Erik Razar before he became a small-time gangster in Keystone City. In the early 1940s, Razar ran a small mob that was taken over by a larger operation run by gangster Topper Hull. Hull framed Razar and had sent him to prison. For years Razar fumed and swore revenge. In the summer of 1947, Razar had hatched a plan to escape by sabotaging the prison power generator. His plan had an unforeseen side-effect, charging Razar with enormous amounts of electricity. Unhurt, Razar slowly changed into a gorilla and made his way across the prison yard where he was sighted by guards. When they opened fire, Razar changed into a giant tortoise, bouncing the bullets off its thick shell. When the bullets ceased, Razar became a rhinoceros and battered down the gate. Fleeing into the woods, Razar became a bird and set out in pursuit of Hull.

Perched on Hull's window sill, Razar learned that Hull had planned a bank job by intercepting an armored car delivery. Razar decided to torture Hull by thwarting his crimes and intercepted the car first. By this point, the police had consulted with scientist Jay Garrick who was among those who witnessed Razar, as a large bull elephant, intercept and dismantle the armor car. Quickly changing to the Flash, Garrick engaged the shape-shifting criminal but was quickly dispatched into a large water reservoir.

Razar, now named The Changeling by the local papers, decided to foil Hull's hijack of a sunken ship recovery operation and then kill him. The Flash also became aware of Hull's plans by eavesdropping in his invisible super-speeding from and determined to intercept them both. Razar dove into the water as Hull's boat left the pier and transformed himself into a large shark. The Flash dived in behind the Changeling but the criminal irritated a large clam which seized the Flash's leg and threatened to drown him. After extricating himself, he came upon the Changeling-shark threatening the divers in the recovery operation and assaulted him. Deciding that he would need to kill the villain to stop him, the Flash battered the shark's gills until it could not breath and then knocked it unconscious as the Changeling tried to change forms. As the unconscious and unmoving shark drifted to the bottom, the Flash left to capture Hull. (Flash Comics #84) Whether the Changeling survived or not as never been determined.

A queen of the 7th Dimension, she tried to take over the Earth twice but failed. She is now trapped in the Gem.

Mazdan

Showcase #4 (October 1956)

A criminal from the 38th century, who the authorities decide to exile to the 50th century when Earth is desolate. He is accidentally sent to the 20th century and tries to steal equipment needed to repair his Time Capsule, such as gold to coat it, and get back to the future to exact revenge, using advanced heat-based weapons. The Flash discovers this and captures Mazdan, who escapes using a contact lens that fires lasers and a "magnetic rod" that focuses heat; the Flash discovers that if Mazdan escapes using his Time Capsule, it will destroy everything within a radius of at least ten miles, killing thousands. He uses his superspeed to break through the time barrier with Mazdan, who oddly enough does not die from the friction and returns to the 38th century. The authorities say they will make sure next time the Time Capsule reaches the 50th century and the Flash returns to his own time. Mazdan later escapes to the 20th century and uses a mind-affecting hallucinatory weapon to cause trouble for the Flash, but is beaten again and returned to prison.

Brain

Showcase #5

A trio of identical brothers who commit crimes while the city has been distracted by three giant boxes they have placed in each other after a fog has descended on the city, which the authorities try to open. Flash jails the first two as they attempt robberies with clever tricks, like a tightrope which the first one cuts and spring-heeled shoes, and jails the last one when he attempts a bank robbery by draining his live wire suit with which he intended to break his brothers out with silver. It is then revealed the last box led into the bank vault.

Bretans

The Flash #119 (March 1961)

A fish-like undersea race that kidnaps humans to work as slaves. After the Elongated Man disappears while skin-diving on his honeymoon, Flash is called by his wife, and reveals other skin-divers have disappeared around here, but he is knocked out with a blast and captured himself. He finds himself in a tank, where skin-divers are fished out and become the slave of the fisherman that captures them. The weakened Flash is captured while trying to get food and forced to work building a house in the city of Breta, and finds the blow that captured the Elongated Man has made him lose his memory. He restores it by making him use his power, and together they defeat the Bretans, who agree to never again kidnap humans and return them.

Cloud Creatures

The Flash #111

Sentinent, cloud like creatures which emerge from underground to take over the world and can project lightning. The Flash notices each has a dark spot on them, and realises striking it will destroy the cloud. He skims over normal clouds and is able to dissipitate the invaders, turning them to rain.

Dokris

The Flash vol 1 #125

Dokris were a species of green-skinned aliens who briefly conquered Earth in the year 2287. Under the leadership of Mynher, they sent a hive to the distant past, 100,842,246 BC, which robbed Earth's minerals of all its radioactivity. This in turn caused the atomic weapons of humanity to deactivate. In the first use of the Cosmic treadmill, Kid Flash went to the past to destroy the hive, and Flash to the Future to battle the aliens so they didn't wipe out humanity. He is knocked out by a radiation gun and taken captive, and Kid Flash is stung by a giant insect in the past. Finally he is given an antidote by half man half bird beings. He destroys the hive, causing the weapons of the Future to work again, meaning the aliens are defeated.

Maugites

The Flash vol 1 #109

Undersea superfast creatures that resseamble black fish with limbs and attack another race, the Saremites. The Flash finds out about the Saremites from an astronaut who was saved when his capsule fell into the sea by the Muagites, and defeats a horde of them. By the end the Saremites are making weapons, having been shown the Maugites can be defeated.

Clive Yorkin

The Flash #270 (February 1979)

Clive Yorkin, a criminal spending life in prison, agreed to take part in a prison experiment. The experiment went wrong, and it drove him mad and able to kill someone by touching them. It was thought he killed Iris West, but he was innocent, the real culprit being the Reverse Flash.

Steve Palmer

The Flash #118

An actor who has been hired to play the Flash, but plans to eliminate him and impersonate him, hiring out his image to companies. He causes dangerous events on set, causing the Flash to take his place to find out who is behind it. The Flash evades a mine cave-in, but is knocked out from behind by Palmer and tied up. Palmer reveals his plan, and his henchmen are about to shoot the Flash, when Iris West rings the doorbell on the trailer, giving the Flash enough time to vibrate free of his bonds, and defeat the crooks.

Katmos

The Flash #105 (March 1959)

Katmos is the sole survivor and former ruler of an iron-based race that ruled the Earth 8 million years ago until nearly all of them were wiped out by a comet. When an archaeologist frees Katmos after he takes control of their mind, he uses his mind control gun on the archaeologist to further his power. Deciding to take over the world, Katmos begins stealing devices he needs in order to do so with his great strength, attracting the attention of the Flash.

Finding Katmos when he is testing his device, the fastest man alive battles the prehistoric humanoid, but is captured with the mind control gun and sealed in a tube that once under the direct light of the sun will make the Flash 1,000 times heavier than normal. Katmos meanwhile tells the Flash of his origins before leaving. The Flash manages to break out of the tube by bouncing out of the cavern into the sky and crashing onto the ground. The Flash then quickly knocks out Katmos and turns him over to the police.

Colonel Computron

The Flash #304 (December 1981)

Colonel Computron was a toymaker named Basil Nurblin, a disgruntled employee of Wiggins Toy Corporation. After donning a suit of armor that resembled one of his toy creations, Basil set out to seek revenge against his employer Willard W. Wiggins (president of Wiggins Toy Corporation) in retribution for being cheated out of adequate compensation for his invention of the popular Captain Computron toy.

Razer

Flash vol. 2, #84 (November 1993)

Razer is a villain who was a mercenary for hire who wears a suit coated completely with lubrilon, an experimental near-frictionless chemical polymer. He nearly destroyed a shopping mall, though the Flash got almost everyone out. Razer later escaped and began working for Data Highways, Inc.

Plunder

Flash vol. 2, #165 (October 2000)

Plunder is an assassin from a mirror universe, a copy of a police officer in the real world.

Fallout

Flash: Iron Heights (2001)

Neil Borman was a mason hired to do some additional work on a nuclear power plant he and his team had helped construct. During a series of tests an explosion destroyed the floor that Borman and his workmates were working on, and they fell into the reactor's cooling system. His co-workers died, but Borman survived as his body’s molecular structure shifted transforming into a man composed of high-energy electrons. Unfortunately, Borman had brought his wife and son to work to show them around the plant. Contact with his new body killed them, and in the same way he inadvertently killed several people. Genuinely remorseful, he was imprisoned in Iron Heights Penitentiary, where he was used to power the prison with his new abilities. The Flash found out about the inhumane treatment of Fallout and the disastrous state of Iron Heights, and while he was unable to change the living conditions within, he managed to have the prison's systems changed so Fallout would not have to suffer as the energy within his body was siphoned.

The Griffin

The Flash: Fastest Man Alive #1 (August 2006)

Griffin Grey was a friend of Bart Allen until he was caught in an explosion at work; he found out he had enhanced speed and strength, and he became a hero, but only for the glory of it. His powers made him age faster, and he looked like an old man in days. He tried to find the secret of what kept Jay Garrick young, but could not. He then became a villain, and during a fight with Bart, he was overpowered and died.

Spin

Flash vol. 2, #238 (May 2008)

Mysterious villain with the ability to magnify people’s fears and make them reality. Spin is actually Dantley Walker, a person in authority at KN News or its parent company. Spin’s secret headquarters, located below the television station’s office, conceals an emaciated captive telepath, plugged into machines and used to track public anxiety so that he can more reliably manipulate it.W

Mob Rule

The Flash #1 (August 2011)

A group consisting of dozens of duplicates of Barry Allen's old friend Manuel Lago. They are neither good nor evil, they just wish to continue living and will do so by any means necessary. Mob Rule first came into existence when Manuel Lago was tortured by a criminal organization called Basilisk. They cut off his fingers one by one and discovered that because of a CIA experiment he could regrow lost limbs. More than that each of those severed limbs grew into a full-grown duplicate of Manuel, these duplicates began calling themselves Mob Rule. Initially they worked with Manuel in his 'one-man' crusade against Basilisk but when they began to die for no reason in the same order in which they were 'born' Manuel ran. Mob Rule's new mission is to find any doctor who can help them and force them and Manuel to find a cure so they can continue to live. Members of Mob Rule all identify each other by numbers based on the order in which they were 'born'. After encountering Mob Rule trying to steal a human genome re-coder, Barry Allen identifies his old friend Manuel Lago as one of the thieves after he died for no reason during the incident. Later the next night, Manuel breaks into Barry's apartment being chased by Mob Rule so Barry follows his friend. Barry feeling like something is wrong changes into the Flash, but when he catches up with Manuel he finds his old friend surrounded by copies of himself. The Flash manages to take out a few of the duplicates but they have been watching Barry and kidnapped his reporter friend, Iris West. They will only let Iris go if The Flash allows them to take Manuel, to which The Flash reluctantly agrees. Mob Rule had kidnapped Dr. Guerrero, the original doctor who gave Manuel his regenerative powers, and were forcing him to find out why they were dying. Even with Manuel as their hostage the doctor could not find out why their lifetime was limited to just a few months. They killed Dr. Guerrero and did manage to replenish their ranks by cutting off Manuel's fingers and hands again. With Dr. Guerrero dead they seek out the man who built the genome re-coder Dr. Darwin Elias and kidnap him. Meanwhile with the help of his friend and co-worker Patty Spivot, Barry Allen located Manuel being held by Mob Rule in Dr. Guerrero's lab. Mob Rule finds them and Barry stays behind to give Patty and Manuel a chance to escape. During the conflict it appeared that one of Mob Rule shot Barry in the head, believing him to be dead they left his body behind.

Turbine

The Flash #8 (August 2011)

Roscoe Hynes also known as Turbine is a Former Tuskegee Airman who led a fleet of prototype war planes on its first combat mission duirng World War II. However when he broke formation to test the plane's capabilities, he and his plane inexplicably disappeared. Roscoe Hynes and the plane ended up trapped in the Speed Force for 70 years. With the arrival of The Flash (who was in search of Iris West) Roscoe Hynes has found his way home.

Created by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, she first appeared in episode 22, "Trial of the Trickster" (May 18, 1991) of the TV series The Flash. Prank is the sidekick of the Trickster (played by Mark Hamill) in the series and wears a unitard-like costume with patterns that resemble the first Trickster's costume from episode 12, "The Trickster". It also includes a pair of shiny pink and light green gloves and a blue cloak. Prank did not originate from the DC Comics universe, but was created exclusively for the show.

The Trickster had two female sidekicks (of sorts) called Prank. The first was Megan Lockhart (played by Joyce Hyser), a private investigator with whom the Trickster had become obsessed. He captured her and forced her to wear the costume. In a later episode, thrill-seeker and toy store heiress Zoey Clark (played by Corinne Bohrer) declared herself Prank and broke the Trickster out of custody. She helped him in his schemes, even when it became clear that he alternated between using her and abusing her. In this, Prank is a precursor to Harley Quinn, who would have a similar relationship with the Joker.

In the animated series The Batman, a version of Prank is shown, this time as a sidekick of the Joker in the episode "The Apprentice".

Alan Kistler's Profile On: The Flash - A detailed analysis of the history of the Flash by comic book historian Alan Kistler. Covers information all the way from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen to today, as well as discussions on the various villains and rogues who fought the Flash. Various art scans.[dead link]